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You can divine a lot about political leaders from whom they include in their inner circle. Dalton McGuinty, for example, has relied heavily on his brothers for advice as Ontario premier, which tells us he’s more comfortable with the support network he grew up with in a large family than with outsiders.

How and from whom McGuinty’s successor will take her bearings, remains to be seen. We’ll have to wait another week to see the public face of premier-designate Kathleen Wynne’s administration, when she names her first cabinet.

What we do know is Wynne faces classic dilemmas as she takes the handoff from McGuinty. She must distance herself from the scandals and overspending that have left the Liberal government deep in hock and with a tenuous minority, but without forsaking centrist approaches that have kept it in power. She needs to put her stamp on a government long in the tooth, but has no voter mandate to govern.

How Wynne will stickhandle will depend on early advice, including from a transition team she’s put together. Surprisingly multi-partisan, with Tory and New Democrat touches, Wynne’s team also covers a wide area of expertise — dating to the 1980s — for a politician critics see as a lefty, Toronto type out of touch beyond the mega-city. It appears to signal a more wily rookie premier than many imagine, openly anticipating the barriers to clinging to power.

Among the more telling advisers on the team:

nGreg Sorbara: An ex-MPP and cabinet minister from the Peterson era, he’s the glue of continuity between McGuinty and Wynne. McGuinty’s first finance minister, he also ­co-chaired three winning Liberal election campaigns. If the NDP gets too demanding seeking favours to prop up Wynne, trust Sorbara to ruthlessly weigh in with when to cave to avoid an election and when to call a bluff.

nDon Drummond: He was the voice of doom behind a report last year recommending hundreds of spending cuts — most not acted on — for Ontario to whip its budget deficit, still at $11.9 billion. Former TD chief economist, Drummond is widely respected on Bay Street. His presence could indicate determination to finally get serious about all that red ink.

nMaria Van Bommel: A chicken farmer and defeated former Grit MPP, her old Lambton-Kent-Middlesex riding epitomizes the rural alienation that cost McGuinty his majority in 2011. Wynne needs a rural voice to speak truth about the hated wind farms the Grits have carpeted across the countryside, their school busing policy that’s killing off small operators and more. The irony is, Van Bommel sat in the same government that snatched away local control over where wind turbines can be built.

nAngus Toulouse: Regional chief of Ontario, Toulouse is a savvy addition, given the growing Idle No More protest movement. From Ipperwash to Caledonia and Attawapiskat, Ontario has been home to some of Canada’s biggest Native flashpoints. Neutralizing grievances early on could pay dividends later.

nGlen Murray: The Manitoba tourist in the recent Liberal leadership race, he’s been an MPP only since 2010 and is better known as a former Winnipeg mayor, the nation’s first openly gay big-city mayor. Running last after early voting, he dropped out of the Grit leadership race to back Wynne. Just what his political payoff will be remains to be seen.

nTony Dean: A former Ontario cabinet secretary, once the most powerful civil servant in the province, he knows a thing or two about getting senior bureaucrats behind a new boss: Another handoff premier, Ernie Eves, tapped him to head the public service in 2002. Dean served six years. Eves? Voters punted him the first chance they got in 2003.